Overcome Annoying Seasonal Allergies with Ease

For many people, watery eyes, a red nose, and sore throat are as typical for spring as greener forests and flourishing meadows. Springtime allergies occur when immune system sees and treats the pollen, mold, and ragweed in the air as serious threats and attacks them, which causes release of sneeze-inducing histamines.

For many people, watery eyes, a red nose, and sore throat are as typical for spring as greener forests and flourishing meadows.

Springtime allergies occur when immune system sees and treats the pollen, mold, and ragweed in the air as serious threats and attacks them, which causes release of sneeze-inducing histamines. According to a study, one hour of productivity is lost weekly because of spring hay fever, which is the most common seasonal allergy. The fact is, the earlier you treat symptoms, the better the remedies will work, so get going the first sniffle.

Mild Allergies. The first line of defense is to reduce your exposure to pollen. Try with closing your windows and stay at home on high-pollen days. Use recirculate function on your air conditioning and wash your laundry with hot water. It’s also useful to flush out your nasal passages with a saline solution in a special neti pot or rinse.

Moderate Allergies. If you’re still suffering, try with a natural antihistamine, freeze-dried stinging nettle. You can take it in tea or a tincture, but beware, since stinging nettle isn’t safe to use for pregnant women and also could interact with other medications. Ask your doctor for opinion first. Acupuncture is already recognized as effective help against seasonal allergies, because it promotes immunity and reduces congestion, which leads to reestablishing a healthy state.

Intense Allergies. If measures, mentioned above, aren’t successful, you should try an over-the-counter (OTC) antihistamine such as loratadine (Claritin) or cetirizine (Zyrtec). You should also ask your doctor about prescription options such as fexofenadine (Allegra), mometasone furoate (Nasonex), montelukast (Singulair) and olopatadine (Patanol). If you want to stay on the herbal side, but are still suffering from allergy-related asthma or mucous buildup, extract of butterbur, an herb shown in small studies to reduce mucous and inflammation, may work in combination with OTC antihistamines. Again, ask your doctor for opinion and make sure it’s free of pyrrolized alkaloids (PA).

Chronic Allergies. When no pills or nasal sprays can’t relieve symptoms, you may want to consider allergy shots, with other words immunotherapy. Thos works by slowly exposing your immune system to allergens and this over time can help your body build up a tolerance to them. Sublingual immunotherapy is a great option if you’re terrified of needles. This is a special formulation of allergens, taken under the tongue to promote immunity. The concept has proven successful, especially in Europe and may even be more effective than shots.

About the Author:

Mark Hanselich, MPharm - I try to be as versatile as possible. I graduated in pharmacy, work as journalist, play soccer, have my own wine cellar and can communicate in six languages. I'm also personal development author and internet marketing specialist. Together with Mr. Daniel Maxoff I run the Website Anioc.com, dedicated to personal development, health and all the good things in our lives. You can also follow me on Twitter.